Few Maple Leaf coaches have been able to watch one goalie rescue the team’s back bacon with 37 stops, boost their NHL-best save percentage, then eye another who’s won six of his past seven for the next start.
That, and not have denizens in Leafs Nation intensely dissect his decision.
Craig Berube is indeed in select company with his current luxury of Anthony Stolarz or Joseph Woll. Toronto is two shy of completing the schedule’s first 30 games, with NHL Stats listing the duo with potentially being the seventh in 107 years to combine on so many wins by that stage.
Stolarz has nine, Woll seven, the same as Berube’s predecessor Sheldon Keefe enjoyed two Decembers ago with Ilya Samsonov and Matt Murray, respectively, and Randy Carlyle with his duo of Jonathan Bernier and James Reimer in 2013. The 30-game franchise best for two alternating stoppers was Turk Broda (10) and Al Rollins (7) to start 1950-51 when Joe Primeau was behind the bench. Dennis Hildeby also has a win for the Leafs this season.
Of course, only one can play when the “real’ season begins in April and calamity in the crease with injury or other unforeseen events has haunted the Leafs. For now, they’re staying in the first-place hunt and the warts are elsewhere in the lineup, such as secondary scoring.
Thursday’s starter at home against Anaheim can’t be confirmed as the club had Wednesday off. The Ducks were in last place in their Pacific Division before having to play and travel from Ottawa, then it’s two in-house Atlantic tilts back-to-back against Buffalo and Detroit, sure to see the netminding split again.
Just as Berube turned to Stolarz in the midst of Woll’s six-game win streak that earned the latter a league star of the week, the coach likely won’t want Woll sitting almost a week between assignments.
Stolarz’s steal of Tuesday’s 2-1 overtime decision in New Jersey bumped his save percentage to .928, just ahead of Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck and Minnesota’s Filip Gustavsson, the league’s two win leaders. Woll (.919) has been equally responsible for Toronto allowing a division-low 71 goals against.
SHANNY IN GOOD SHAPE
The success so far — the acid test is still five months away — is certainly welcome for team president Brendan Shanahan. He brought in Brad Treliving as general manager last year, endorsed the coaching change from Keefe to Berube this summer and the Leafs are playing even better in their own end than the improvements Keefe had begun.
“The big shift this year is our play on the defensive side,” Shanahan told TSN while at this week’s NHL board of governors meeting in Florida. “You really sort of admire what (the Cup-winning Panthers) did. They weren’t really known as a defensive team, they kind of made a collective decision they were going to be an outstanding defensive team and it got them a championship.
“Sometimes it’s about the individuals you have in the team, sometimes it’s about the individuals you have collectively making a decision to be better defensively. I give Craig and his staff a lot of credit for that, I give our players a lot of credit.
“There’s a long way to go, but so far, the commitment on the defensive side of the puck, the goaltending that we’ve been getting, knock on wood, we just want to keep getting better at that.”
Shanahan was a lot less forthcoming on his own future with the team and a contract reportedly set to expire at the end of next season. In the spring, he got a strong vote of confidence from incoming MLSE president and CEO Keith Pelley.
“I think with players and coaches, there’s obviously focus on their contracts. It’s different for management. I’m not the story. I’m just going to continue to do the job every day I wake up. Whether I’m in my first year or final year, I’m always going to think about, ‘What can I do for the Leafs?’ ”
PAPI FEELING MORE PEP
Auston Matthews said before Tuesday’s win he still felt out of his comfort zone, despite seven points in five games.
“I’m getting there, it’s tough to jump right back into (the five starts in eight days) after being out. The first couple, it seems you’re running on adrenalin because you’re so excited to be back, then the wear and tear of the grind come back.”
In the wake of a month off and a trip to Germany to have an upper-body injury treated, he anticipated a re-adjustment phase. He laboured through Tuesday’s first two periods with the rest of the Leafs, missing three breakaways. Then his superpowers kicked in on the overtime winner. He ended with five of the Leafs’ 16 shots and winning 13 of 25 faceoffs. It was also his 62nd game-winner, one behind Dave Keon for second place in team history.
“That (goal) felt really good. I couldn’t find my spot the first couple of times. The puck was hard to settle down, I was just guessing he (Jacob Markstrom) would go down and just try to lift it. We had one shot on net … (our) momentum might be better next game.”
THEY THE NORTH
The farm team Marlies are hanging in the first place battle in the North Division, three points out with three games in hand on Laval and Cleveland. Tuesday saw them dominate the Lehigh Valley Phantoms at home, spotting them a 2-0 lead and winning 6-3.
Defenceman Mikko Kokkonen scored twice in the middle period, with a Matt Benning goal his first as a Marlie. Alex Steeves, fourth in AHL goals with 13, had one goal and two assists.
Russian goalie Artur Akhtyamov, a 2020 draft pick, made 26 saves and has yet to lose in regulation (8-0-1-0 with a .929 save percentage).
X: @sunhornby